It is generally conventional to provide what is referred to as a front table, or a machine region having transport elements, on handling machines, for example filling machines, capping machines and/or labeling machines, the containers to be handled being fed to the handling machine via said front table or machine region. The front table thus forms the actual container in-feed of the overall system consisting of the front table and handling machine. In this case, for example a conveying belt for conveying the containers can be provided at the front table. The containers are separated out, or a corresponding Pitch spacing between the containers is set, usually by a screw conveyor. The screw conveyor is arranged generally parallel to the conveying belt and has screw channels with a pitch that sets the containers to a particular pitch spacing corresponding to the pitch of the handling machine. The greater the spacing between the containers is intended to be, the greater the pitch of the screw conveyor has to be for the same length of the screw conveyor. However, the greater pitch of the screw channels results in very unstable container guidance. Alternatively, the screw conveyor has to have a greater length if a greater pitch spacing between the containers is intended to be set. However, this results in an increased space requirement for the overall system. Furthermore, the screw conveyor usually has a drive which is located in continuation of the screw conveyor towards the front table of the handling machine. However, it is difficult to fit the drive for the screw conveyor in the front table of the handling machine.
Located downstream of the screw conveyor, as seen in the conveying direction, is usually an in-feed starwheel, which has on its circumference a number of recesses (pockets) for receiving the containers, said recesses being open towards said circumference and being distributed at regular angular spacings. The containers are conveyed into the pockets of the in-feed starwheel at the predetermined pitch spacing by the screw conveyor. The received containers are moved on a partially circular conveying path by the in-feed starwheel. In order in this case to keep the containers in the recesses of the in-feed starwheel, a securing element is generally provided on the partially circular conveying path of the in-feed starwheel, said securing element enclosing the in-feed starwheel on its partially circular conveying path. In this case, the securing element can be configured for example as an outer guide rail. In order to ensure that the containers are held securely in the recesses of the in-feed starwheel, the spacing between the guide rail and the in-feed starwheel has to be adapted to the dimensions of the containers to be conveyed. If the container size is changed, the corresponding guide rail therefore also has to be exchanged, for example. Thus, increased conversion complexity arises in the known arrangement of screw conveyor and downstream in-feed starwheel, if the container size is changed. This in turn results in increased costs in the conversion of the overall system.
It is therefore an objective to provide an improved apparatus, a system having such an apparatus and an improved method for transferring containers to a handling machine that handles the containers cyclically in groups, this apparatus, system and method addressing at least some of the abovementioned drawbacks.